Jun. 10th, 2012

Jun. 10th, 2012

I first discovered them while staying in England around Easter, which is when they are traditionally served, but they are so good, I want to have them all through the year! I like the ones baked after this recipe even better than the store-bought ones (shhh, don't tell anyone, especially not M&S). They have the right texture and smell, and with butter, they are heavenly. They are best fresh from the oven, but you can also stuff them in your toaster. Yay!

Again, you cannot buy them anywhere near my hometown, which is why I tried making them in the first place.

Now, there are different versions of cross buns floating around, this is one without almond paste. Because I am lazy like that. And did not have any almonds for the almond paste.

Ingredients

For the dough:

50 g sugar450 g flour1 p. dry yeast (you can use fresh! If you do, use 20 g)150 ml warm water2 tbl spoons mixed spice*bit of salt100 g mixed dried fruit (I used cherries, blue berries and cranberries. Fabulous!)25 g candied lemon peel/ orange peel (if you like that stuff. I don't. So I used raisins, which should be in here anyway. I decided to have a fruit explosion and it was lovely.)orange zest from one orange (please do not omit. It is too lovely.)1 egg50 g butter, melted50 ml milk, warmed (Um, alright, so, I did not warm the milk. I just put it into the pan with the melted butter. Which kind of is like warming, I assume? Well, it worked.)

For the cross decoration:

100 g flour50 ml water1 egg

For glazing (if you want to.)

2 tbl spoons sugarjuice from 1 orange (neat, you get to use the whole thing in this!)

*In the UK, you can buy mixed spice. Here, not so much. So I made my own mixed spice using cinnamon, coriander, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.

What to do with the above:

Mix 1 tbl spoon sugar, the dry yeast and the warm water until it is foaming. It will foam. It will foam out of the mixing bowl if you pick a too small one.

Put flour, salt, spices into a big mixing bowl. Pour in the dried fruit, the orange zest and the rest of the sugar. Make a basin (a dent? a pit?) and pour in the yeat mixture that is threatening to get out of the other bowl and run away. Put in egg, milk and butter and stir with a wooden spoon until it's a dough. Yeast does not like metal, and is pretty ambivalent about plastic.

Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth. Put it back in the bowl and cover it with a moist towel. Let it rest for an hour somewhere warm, until double in size.

Now, BEAT the dough until it's the same size as before it's slumber. Evil laughter optional. Make sure the gf does not get a heart attack should she sit in the kitchen as well. (Sorry. The recipe said slap the dough. I swear.)

Make 12 nice little round buns and place them on a either lined or greased baking tray. Cover them with a towel again and let them sit for 35 - 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to hot (220 C/ 430F).

Mix water and flour for the cross decoration and thus make a cheap white dough. Roll it until it's about 1 cm thick and cut into 6 parts. Roll again until they are about 5 mm thick and cut them into 24 pieces. Beat the egg (rather violent recipe, isn't it?) and brush the buns. Lay to strips of dough on each bun to form a cross. Brush again with the egg.

Bake for 15 minutes, until golden.

If you want to put glazing on them, heat sugar and juice until the sugar has completely dissolved and the sirup is bubbling. Glaze buns with, um well, glazing.